Notre Dame Triumphant

For the first time in the event’s history, The University of Notre Dame Australia have won the Men’s Basketball Western University Championship.

Going into the competition Notre Dame were quietly confident of being able to qualify for the Australian University Games in Brisbane later this year. Team captain Chris Zielinski put in a lot of time and effort to choose the squad which he felt would lead to the elusive chance to go the Games.

After a bye in the first round, Notre Dame took on last years Australian University Games Champions, Edith Cowan University, and led throughout to start the campaign well. The following game against UWA proved tougher than expected and losing that game by five points meant that a chance in the final was very slim.

Notre Dame had to win the last two games to be any chance of making the final and qualifying for the Uni Games, including one against the unbeaten Curtin University. Notre Dame dug deep and won two exciting matches, both by one point. This meant that three teams were left on 3 wins and one loss after the round robin fixtures.

For the second successive year, the finalists would be determined on percentage. After missing out on a spot in the final under the same circumstances last year, there were celebrations when it was announced that Notre Dame would play Curtin in the 2005 Western University Championship Final.

And what a game it was!!!

After starting very sluggishly and trailing 0-8, Notre Dame slowly pegged their way back into the match. The two teams traded baskets for the majority of the game with neither side getting a major break. Notre Dame got their noses in front with 8 seconds to go and were able to prevent any further scoring to end up champions.

Congratulations to all the guys who competed.

Chris Zielinski (captain)
Ben Caporn (Gold selection)
John Taylor (Gold selection and MVP in the final)
John Soroka
Ben Kaplan
David Bown
Nick Daniels
Nicolas Miguelez
Matty Bullock